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Table 3 Characteristics of Millennium Cohort Family Study participants by recruitment status (N = 8743)

From: Engaging military couples in marital research: does requesting referrals from service members to recruit their spouses introduce sample bias?

Spouse characteristics

Referred

Direct

p-valuec

N = 5307

N = 3436

n a

(%)b

n a

(%)b

Demographics

 Sex

    

.0067

  Male

725

(7.4)

401

(6.1)

 

  Female

4582

(92.6)

3035

(93.9)

 

 Age (years)

    

<.0001*

  17–24

1339

(31.7)

675

(25.1)

 

  25–34

3309

(58.8)

2344

(65.7)

 

  35–44

533

(8.0)

333

(7.5)

 

  > 44

126

(1.4)

84

(1.6)

 

 Race/ethnicity

    

.0285

  White, non-Hispanic

4183

(76.5)

2622

(73.6)

 

  Black, non-Hispanic

226

(5.7)

146

(5.6)

 

  Hispanic

461

(10.1)

332

(11.2)

 

  Other

410

(7.8)

315

(9.6)

 

 Education

    

.0067

  Less than bachelor’s

3198

(67.3)

1979

(64.2)

 

  Bachelor’s or higher

2097

(32.7)

1447

(35.8)

 

 Number of children

    

<.0001*

  0

2105

(40.1)

1475

(42.5)

 

  1

1464

(27.8)

1015

(29.6)

 

  2

1061

(19.7)

657

(19.7)

 

  3 or more

677

(12.4)

289

(8.2)

 

 Employment

    

<.0001*

  Full-time

1730

(29.7)

1284

(35.2)

 

  Part-time

694

(13.7)

404

(12.1)

 

  Not employed, looking for work

536

(11.3)

298

(9.6)

 

  Not employed, not looking for work

246

(4.5)

150

(4.6)

 

  Homemaker

1849

(36.2)

1130

(33.5)

 

  Student

237

(4.6)

160

(5.1)

 

 Financial problems or worries

    

.0003*

  Not bothered

2480

(42.3)

1761

(46.7)

 

  Bothered a little or a lot

2754

(57.7)

1651

(53.3)

 

Military characteristics of the service member

 Deployment status

    

<.0001*

  Nondeployed

1783

(29.9)

1190

(32.2)

 

  Deployed without combat

594

(10.4)

473

(13.4)

 

  Deployed with combat

2925

(59.8)

1751

(54.4)

 

 Service branch

    

<.0001*

  Air Force

1338

(14.4)

1180

(21.8)

 

  Army

2561

(53.3)

1383

(45.0)

 

  Marine Corps

485

(14.6)

292

(14.5)

 

  Navy/Coast Guard

923

(17.8)

581

(18.7)

 

 Component

    

.0006*

  Active duty

4109

(78.1)

2773

(81.4)

 

  Reserve/National Guard

1198

(21.9)

663

(18.6)

 

 Pay grade

    

.0785

  Enlisted

4002

(87.2)

2552

(86.1)

 

  Officer

1305

(12.8)

884

(13.9)

 

 Spouse’s military experience

    

.2629

  Never

4374

(85.9)

2784

(84.6)

 

  Prior

488

(6.7)

341

(7.3)

 

  Current

432

(7.4)

302

(8.1)

 

Individual health and adjustment

 Mental component score

    

.0028

  Lowest 15th percentile

833

(17.7)

462

(14.8)

 

  Middle 70th percentile

3609

(69.0)

2428

(70.2)

 

  Highest 15th percentile

772

(13.3)

523

(15.0)

 

 Physical component score

    

.0534

  Lowest 15th percentile

815

(16.6)

480

(14.8)

 

  Middle 70th percentile

3640

(69.0)

2391

(69.6)

 

  Highest 15th percentile

759

(14.3)

542

(15.7)

 

Marital

 Years of marriage

    

<.0001*

  < 2

810

(19.4)

380

(14.7)

 

  2–5

2978

(57.8)

1974

(57.8)

 

  6–10

1095

(18.5)

826

(22.3)

 

  ≥ 11

338

(4.4)

238

(5.2)

 

 Difficulties with significant other

    

.0003*

  Not bothered

3414

(62.8)

2366

(67.1)

 

  Bothered a little or a lot

1806

(37.2)

1048

(32.9)

 

  Abbreviated quality of marriage index, mean (SE)

17.15

(0.06)

17.13

(0.08)

.8263

 Military life

  Months away from home (service member), mean (SE)

3.31

(0.06)

3.02

(0.07)

.0009*

  Hours of work per week (service member), mean (SE)

45.77

(0.32)

46.40

(0.39)

.2116

  Work-family conflict scale, mean (SE)

21.44

(0.08)

21.41

(0.10)

.8255

  Deployment stress, mean (SE)

1.67

(0.02)

1.59

(0.02)

.0026

  Injury stress, mean (SE)

0.63

(0.02)

0.61

(0.02)

.3100

  Family stress, mean (SE)

1.69

(0.02)

1.63

(0.02)

.0417

Family

 Caring for others

    

.0028

  Not bothered

2867

(54.3)

1999

(58.0)

 

  Bothered a little or a lot

2358

(45.7)

1414

(42.0)

 
  1. Abbreviation: SE Standard error
  2. aFrequencies were unweighted and may not sum to the total population presented because of missing data
  3. bColumn percentages and means were weighted and normalized to the study sample. Percentages may not sum to 100 because of rounding
  4. cp-values were calculated with chi-squared tests and t-tests, respectively. They were weighted and normalized to the study population. Using the Bonferroni adjustment, significance was assessed with α = .002
  5. *Values are significant